1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an interactive sports contest system which allows remotely located participants to compete with one another. More particularly, it relates to an interactive professional wrestling fantasy contest system in which team rosters and rating scores are utilized in determining winners and losers of a scheduled competition between the remote participants.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is known and understood, interactive contest systems are known and have been developed for various sports team competitions commonly known as “fantasy baseball”, “fantasy football”, and “rotisserie league”. One such system is that set out in U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,723, described for use in interactive baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer, golf and other events, where individual player performances may be presented in the form of selected statistics, and wherein each participant in the contest is given a certain amount of imaginary dollars with which to purchase a subset of selected players.
Although such interactive contest system may perform its described operations, a reading of it quickly illustrates how complicated it is—including central controllers, data terminals and links, statistical and team roster databases, player scoring computers, etc.—all of which must interact precisely to determine the individual scores. In describing a fantasy basketball league, for example, computer formula are utilized to take into account minutes played, field goals made and missed, 3-point goals made and missed, free throws made and missed, rebounds, assists, technical fouls, personal fouls, and the number of games in which the selected player's team won or lost. Clearly, that becomes quite different for a participant in such contest competition to determine how he/she is doing at any instant of time. Formula for other types of fantasy sports competitions are also set out, noted as being usable for implementation with other athletic events, but similarly exhibit the same problems in not allowing a participant to keep up with the scoring as it goes along.
Obviously, if someone wished to compare his/her own skills of selection without actually participating in such competition, that cannot be done with contests of this type without joining in on the league, and paying its required participation fee. Equally obvious is that by being assigned a certain number of imaginary dollars with which to purchase players available—so that the participant with the highest return on investment is there declared to be the contest winner—the interactive contest system which results is simply not one readily and easily usable, except by a limited number of diehard participants.